Originally published July 21 2005
Vitamin D deficiency a result of lack of sun exposure
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Eighty to 90 percent of Americans are deficient in vitamin D, due perhaps to our attempts to avoid sunlight, our main source of the vitamin, because of skin cancer risk.
It appears that vitamin D is finally coming into its own, and not a moment too late.
Hasn't it been a century already since German researchers noted that consuming 1-3 teaspoons daily of cod liver oil, rich in vitamin D, could reverse rickets in children, and didn't milk producers start fortifying their product with vitamin D in the 1930s as a result?
In fact, fortifying milk with vitamin D made rickets a rare disease throughout most of the 20th century.
Now, before the dermatology community puts a price on my head, let me assure you that I'm well aware that excessive sun exposure is harmful to skin, that sunburn can lead to skin cancer, and that the depletion of the ozone layer means that we all need to maintain extra vigilance in avoiding the risks of overexposure.
But -- and this but is a big one -- the sun is also our primary source of vitamin D. Research has demonstrated that when our skin is exposed to the UVB part of the ultraviolet spectrum, a compound in the skin is transformed into a precursor of vitamin D (called D3 or calcitriol), which is then converted by the kidneys into an active form that our bodies proceed to use in a multiplicity of ways.
For example, we use it as a messenger chemical to alert the small intestines to absorb more calcium and phosphorous, the essential building blocks of healthy bone tissue.
We send more of it to help out the specialized cells in our immune system, providing protection from juvenile diabetes and other autoimmune disorders, and to the kidneys, to support specialized enzymes in regulating blood pressure.
There's a bit of it in egg yolks and organ meats (e.g. liver), in fortified milk, and a prize-winning dose in cod liver oil, that nutritious staple that adorned the shelf of our more discerning grandparents and has recently made a comeback in the health-conscious community.
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